A majority of Americans want a ban on incoming flights from West African countries experiencing an Ebola outbreak, an online survey for NBC News reveals.
The survey, conducted by SurveyMonkey and then weighted for age, race, sex, education and region to match U.S. Census data, found that 58 percent of Americans support the ban.
Twenty percent of respondents opposed a travel ban, and the rest said they didn’t know.
The survey was conducted a day before the first person diagnosed with Ebola inside the U.S. died Wednesday.
Beginning this week, CDC and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will screen people traveling from or through Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone at five major U.S. airports.
San Diego International Airport, known locally as Lindbergh Field, is not among them. Our airport is more of a destination airport than a hub.
The only carrier with a direct flight from Europe is British Airways, spokesperson Rebecca Bloomfield told NBC 7.
Local
While the CDC is working hand in hand with other airports worldwide, Bloomfield said the organization has not contacted airport administrators here about the potential spread of the Ebola virus through air travel.
The airport does have an isolation area between Gates 21 and 22 in Terminal Two established years ago to corral any communicable disease.
Wednesday night Laura Johnson returned home from a business trip in Munich.
“I washed my hands at least six times if that helps and saved my little hand sanitizer,” Johnson said.
Johnson agrees the potential for panic is great but didn't get a sense of that from other passengers on her flight.
Rafi Feliciano just returned from two years teaching in Korea and said she experienced temperature sensors at an airport in China.
“I was making sure I hope I do not have a fever,” Feliciano recalled. “I don't want to be quarantined. I want to get home okay.”
One British Airlines flight arrives each day around dinner time from London Heathrow Airport. The average flight carries 320 passengers.
Under the new screening guidelines released Wednesday, an estimated 150 people would be checked each day at New York's JFK International and the international airports in Newark, Washington Dulles, Chicago and Atlanta.
